Now that Donald Trump has acquired the number of delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination, he still has another hurdle to clear. Some conservatives are still saying #NeverTrump and Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard is still pushing for another candidate.

Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday night to slam fresh predictions from Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol that an independent candidate would soon be entering the race for president, warning that a 2016 “spoiler” could swing the race to the Democrats.

The Republican Party has to be smart & strong if it wants to win in November. Can’t allow lightweights to set up a spoiler Indie candidate!

Kristol, along with other conservative pundits, long has been working to attract an independent candidate to run in November amid lingering concerns in some wings of the Republican Party about Trump’s conservative credentials. This effort to date has struggled to recruit a willing candidate, while running into logistical hurdles — including the rules and deadlines for getting new names on the ballot. Yet on Sunday, Kristol teased a forthcoming announcement, saying on Twitter:

Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.

Conservative columnist Kurt Schlichter isn’t a huge fan of Trump, but in his latest piece at Townhall, he explains that the choice between Hillary and the Donald is an easy one:

Why Is This Hardcore Conservative Not #NeverTrump? Because Hillary Is So Much Worse

I’ve got a lot of #NeverTrump friends. Heck, I bet most of my friends are #NeverTrump. Hell, my wife is #NeverTrump. I like #NeverTrump people, even though I think they’re wrong. We share the same goals. We just have really crappy choices and are making different ones.

I assume they all think I’m wrong too, and I’m not going to argue with them. For one thing, they’re my friends. I don’t want to argue with my friends. I want to mock stupid libs with my friends while consuming red meat and redder wine. The second reason is that I’m not going to change their minds, nor are they going to change mine (although Donald Trump himself still retains that power should he become sufficiently annoying).

So we should just sit down, have some beers, and talk about something else until November because we’re not going to change and fighting each other redirects the fire away from our real enemy.

Comments

I fully understand how voters who have been actively a part of the conservative movement but are not supporters of Trump have a hard time with their decision. Political profiteers like Kristol and the Redstate gang, for example, I am much more skeptical about.

Like it has been for at least the past 3 presidential elections, for many this November will require holding ones nose. Yet again. But it’s a failure of the party. The same group who deceived conservatives and really did a number on the Tea Party is now reaping what they sowed. And the Kristol movement will only make the anger and hatred for the GOP worse. The term “establishment” will achieve new levels of negativity.

“…for many this November will require holding ones nose. Yet again. But it’s a failure of the party. The same group who deceived conservatives and really did a number on the Tea Party is now reaping what they sowed. And the Kristol movement will only make the anger and hatred for the GOP worse.”

I just couldn’t like this enough. The above is spot-on, in my opinion.

Kudos to you on expressing how I feel in such a cogent manner. Your term “political profiteers” is spot on! This group of insiders who profit from the Magazines, speaking engagements,appearances on the Network programs, hosting conferences, and sponsoring cruises and trips where they wax poetic make me SICK. I am a conservative and I have voted every election for the party’s choice and I will do the same this year. I will never forget the #NeverTrump crowd and the damage they are doing in the interests of their self centered self interest.

Donald Trump will be running on a Republican platform, governing with a Republican candidate, and he’ll have to work with republicans in the House and Senate. Stephen Miller, looking like a likely chief of staff, is excellent.

All of those political issues where Trump is ignorant or doesn’t hold strong views? Republicans will be making the decisions or advising Trump.

President Trump could be a great president.

As for Kristol, he is wrong about everything. His track record is awful.

To be honest, he is much worse than what was understood by RINO in previous years. Trump is not merely a pretend conservative who is only too happy to make deals with liberals behind our backs. He doesn’t even know how to pretend to be a conservative and will proudly make deals with liberals, as a matter of fact he told us as much.

Kristol is joined by a fair amount of “conservative” media like NRO, Redstate, etc. That is where the influence comes from. And it’s way in my post at the top I say I am most skeptical of the #NeverTrump crowd who are political profiteers.

I usually agree pretty much with Kurt Schlichter. Not this time. I think Trump would be every bit as bad as Hillary and perhaps worse. Because I absolutely believe that he isn’t playing with a full deck.

So no matter how often someone, somewhere tells me I have to hold my nose and vote for the flawed Republican candidate one more time I stand firm. I will not.

I am, was and will remain #NeverTrump. Others must do as their own conscience dictates.

I respect those opinions. But you have to be willing to accept a significantly altered SCOTUS if you do something (or nothing) that allows Hillary even 1 term, much less 2. For me, that is one of the biggest issues. We are already on the verge of a court that has a view that they must “rewrite” the Constitution. If you want a progressive view of a somewhat model future, look any modern college campus. It is a test bed for ways to “alter” the First Amendment rights and especially Second Amendment rights.

I’m with you, Marge. For those of us who spent months and months researching each of the candidates, going to primary resources and not relying on media, pundits or campaign speeches, we are confident in our choice of candidate and even more determined to reject someone whose record is indelibly stained by past decisions, political, philosophical and moral. Coupled to his aberrant behavior which has been on public display throughout this 2016 campaign, Donald Trump is simply untenable as a representative of the party, much less the country.

But here is the added danger which people like Mr. Schlicter fails to recognize. In times past, the GOPe was hyper-reflexive when it came to chastising and sometimes destroying their own for the most trivial or just perceived breaches of propriety (remember Congressman Joe “you lie” Wilson?). Yet, note the number and names of those who readily and wantonly have jumped to the support and aid of DJT, especially within the recent weeks. Devotion to party and power has overtaken any regard for constitutional principle or even decency. If allowed into office, DJT will neither be guided nor constrained by any Republican in congress, never have to face sanction or fear of impeachment, no matter how egregious his offenses. OTOH, Clinton is more likely to face stiffer challenges, even from the otherwise feckless congress. She will never achieve the same mileage from her woman card as Obama did from his race card. A Clinton presidency might actually embolden a Republican majority in the House and Senate.

Finally, Donald Trump has portrayed himself as the embodiment of the worst stereotype of Republican that liberal progressives claim exist. Many of his followers have helped advance this destructive image as well. A Trump presidency will be so ravaged by liberal hyenas, far worse than was done to GW Bush, that it may well take generations before anything resembling conservatism to ever set foot in the Oval Office again. Think about that.
NeverTrump.

Holding our nose and voting for one bad candidate, one non-conservative after another has brought us to this terrible choice. I refuse to perpetuate it another cycle. Trump may be better than Clinton they say – with not one iota of proof that would be so. In fact there is all the evidence in the world that he’s too flawed to even be considered. All the name calling in the world, all the precious little snide remarks won’t change my mind. Only Trump could do that and everything he says and does convinces me I’m right.

Everyone has a right to their opinion – they don’t have the right to tell me who gets my vote. Right now it looks like Gary Johnson.

Oh and FYI, I’m an Independent-Conservative and owe the Republican Party that almost always gets my vote nothing.

The choice is between Trump/Clinton and a Democracy that willfully safeguards liberty under the dictates of the Constitution. Neither Clinton or Trump have shown any regard for the Constitution. That should scare the heck out of anyone.

That’s my choice? Which chad do I punch for ‘us’? Is he / she going to be on the ballot? Unless the #NeverTrump crowd has a candidate who stands a chance of winning the Nov 8, 2016 election (and if they do they better hurry up and tell us), the real choice is between the lesser of 2 evils and political suicide this year. There is no way for ‘us’ to win, but we do get to choose between shooting ourselves in the foot or in the head. There’s some hope with Trump, there’s no hope with Hillary. That’s reality, and all the rhetoric, posturing and stand ’til the last man on principle doesn’t change it. It’s 2016 and reality sucks.

“Hope with Trump”. You can imagine a more or less realistic scenario under which Trump will be slightly better than Hil. You can also imagine plenty of realistic scenarios under which Trump is way worse.
Hillary, at least, is the devil we know and the one (Hamilton Rule) that we can oppose. Yes, I prefer a Hillary presidency. So be careful when asking me to choose a lesser of two evils.

Sorry, sandbox, that dog don’t hunt. Despite your rhetorical attempt to limit Trump’s good points by stating that Trump would at best be only slightly better than Clinton, it’s easy to imagine Trump as much better on many issues: trade, immigration, gun control, etc.
You then say that it’s easy to imagine that Trump would be worse than Clinton. I disagree. Not only is it not easy, it’s impossible to imagine. Trying to imagine a Trump worse than Clinton conjurs up a creature with cloven feet, horns, red firey eyes and a sulphurous smell. But when I look closely, next to it, leading it down the path, stands the Hildabeast! I can’t think of anything a bad Trump would do that she wouldn’t also do. And double down on.
By any measure, Trump is the better candidate.

I’m sorry, is there some part of Trump being a part of the crony class that escapes you? He is friends with Bill and Hillary and has been for decades. He was an outspoken advocate of HillaryCare back in the ’90’s and defended Bill’s serial infidelities by holding his own up as an example.

I’m not sure what world Trump fans live in, but I can guarantee you, it’s not the world Trump lives in. He buys and sells politicians, lobbies and contributes to lobbies that lobby in his behalf, and is, essentially, the two part of the it takes two to tango for a government to be corrupt and unworkable.

Trump is the problem,

Promoting him from crony purchaser of political favors to crony granter of political favors (while, I’m sure, still lining the pockets of his own companies) does what? Seriously, I’m asking. Do you people who support Trump really have no idea who he is or what he’s always done? You do know, I hope, that he didn’t spring, full-grown from some goddess’s head a year and a half ago.

I think some people (not directed at you) are forgetting that if Trump wins, the war will go on. We will have to fight to force Trump and Congress to secure the borders, deport the illegals, rebuild the military … etc etc

But doing that successfully will be far more likely to succeed under Trump than under Hillary. We will have a much better chance under an Opportunist than under a dedicated, committed, and time tested ideological leftist. Especially with the weak willed Republicans in Congress.

If Hillary nominates a liberal to SCOTUS the GOP already indicated they will break with their long-standing tradition of confirming a qualified judge. If Trump nominates a liberal, as he told us he will, they will confirm. Because with Democrats and the Republican president pushing to the left, what are they going to do?
That’s just one example.

Ah, so you do realize Trump is full of … crap. You’re already setting up your scapegoat. Sorry, that dog won’t hunt. Trump, we’ve been hearing for months is a deal maker, a mover and shaker who will flitty-flop his way to greatness with his business and deal-making acumen. Only now you notice there’s legislative branch?

This is hilarious. Trump walks back everything–literally–and you are already gearing up to blame an as yet non-existent Congress. Do you people even hear yourselves?

The institutional left is literally freaking out at Trump’s assault on their orthodoxy while a coterie of idiots claiming to be “conservatives” at #NeverTrump stroke their wounded egos and ruffled feathers and refuse to support the revolution taking place in front of their eyes.

Kristol and his band of self-interested morons do not deserve to be dignified with the term “conservative”. No conservative would even consider helping Hillary Clinton win the election and stuffing the Supreme Court with gun hating liberals.

These are the same “brilliant thinkers” claiming every step of the way that Trump was finished and predicting he’d never catch Clinton in the polls. They are losers so personally furious at being proven wrong repeatedly that they want revenge for their damaged egos at all costs — and at our beloved country’s expense.

Hillary is an intelligent person. She knew her personal email system is far more insecure than the State Dept system and is easily hacked. So, is it possible she wanted her system to be hacked in order to hurt our country? She wanted to join Obama in his quest to do the same to our country. (Example: Freeing 5 terrorists to rejoin their buddies.)

Sometimes an entity (a person, a corporation, a profession, a country) performs a service so beneficial to tremendous numbers of people that it goes down in history as a great benefactor. Its petty failings and even crimes pale to insignificance beside its one great gift.

A good example would be the United States in the Pacific. Whatever its ham-fisted failings, within living memory the US gave the peoples of a vast swathe of territory a priceless gift no other force could bring to reality—despite daunting odds and tremendous costs, it drove out the Japanese.

Similarly, I expect that future American history will venerate two very different men, Barry Obama and Donald Trump, for the tremendous service they did the country.

They kept Hillary Clinton out of the Oval Office.

Their crimes and shortcomings, real though they are, will be consigned to obscurity, compared to this one magnificent public service.

You have 3 types of Never Trump people; liberals, establishment Republicans and Tea Party types. Neither of the 3 like him and neither of the 3 get along with each other. It’s time to stop thinking about American politics on a flat line. There is more than just Right and Left. A spider web graph would be more appropriate to place your values and views on the role of government on.

And Trump really is the exact definition of RINO, even if he is demonstrably opposite of what we have come to know as the term RINO over the past 5 years. He might never have been an elected politician, but a person who donates vast sums of money to politicians to influence the business decisions they are making means he is in fact the enabler of status quo politicians. I don’t see how that makes him about the fray…

This Tea Party “type” and a lot of others like me wonder where you get this characterization. Certainly there is not unanimity but there is lots of support for Trump, especially among rank and file Tea Partiers. Google “Tea Party Trump” and you’ll see most of the articles about unhappy Tea Party come from Reuters, The Atlantic etc — i.e. sources that can’t stand Trump or the Tea party.

Clearly, some people are not who they told us they were. They told us they wanted Liberty, small government and sanctity of life and they chose a bloviating crony who, in all likelihood, personally arranged abortions.

What part of it is speculation that Tea Party was supposed to be small government, etc. or that Trump is a crony?
DaMav, why should I help Trump get elected if that will end conservatism in America once and for all?

I don’t think many mainstream Republicans get #NeverTrump. I didn’t vote for McCain or Romney either. Telling me that a shit candidate is not as bad as the alternative – that just doesn’t cut it anymore.